The General Crisis

The General Crisis is the term used by some historians to describe the period of widespread conflict and instability that occurred from the early 17th century to the early 18th century in Europe and in more recent historiography in the world at large.

What was the "General Crisis"?

The term was coined by English historian Eric Hobsbawm in his pair of 1954 articles entitled "The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" published in Past and Present, and cemented by his contemporary, Hugh Trevor-Roper, in a 1959 article entitled "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" published in the same journal. Hobsbawm discussed an economic crisis in Europe; Trevor-Roper saw a wider crisis, "a crisis in the relations between society and the State".^[1]

Trevor-Roper argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by a complex series of demographic, religious, economic and political problems. In this “general crisis”, various events such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years War in Holy Roman Empire and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia were all manifestations of the same problem. The most important cause of the “general crisis”^[2], in Trevor-Roper’s opinion, was the conflict between “Court” and “Country”; that is between the increasingly powerful centralising, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states represented by the court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry representing the country. In addition, the intellectual and religious changes introduced by the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation were important secondary causes of the "general crisis".

The “general crisis” thesis generated much controversy between those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who believed in the “general crisis” thesis but saw the problems of 17th-century Europe as being more social and economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow, and those who simply denied there was any “general crisis”.

Current historians interested in the General Crisis include Geoffrey Parker, who has authored a book on the subject.

Conflicts and Wars

Notable conflicts and crises which occurred during this period include:

• The Thirty Years War in Germany (1618-48)
• The Economic Crisis in the Holy Roman Empire (1619–1623)[1]
• The Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-51), The Protectorate (1653-59), and the Glorious Revolution (1688) in Britain and Ireland
• The collapse of the Ming Dynasty and rise of the Qing Dynasty in China (1644-62)
• The Fronde in France (1643-68)
• The Franco-Dutch War (1672-78)
• Revolts against the Spanish crown in Naples, Portugal, and Catalonia
• The War of the Grand Alliance (1688-97)
• The climax of the Dutch Revolt and related conflicts (ends in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia)
• Numerous internal revolts in the Ottoman Empire (especially 1622)
• Continued war between the Ottomans and Safavid Persia which had started in 1509
• The Great Turkish War (1667-99)
• The disintegration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Deluge
• The beginning of Sakoku in Japan and the Shimabara Uprising (1638)
• The Char Bouba War in Mauritania (1644-74)
• The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14)

Inflation

Precious metals from newly discovered deposits in America, especially silver from Potosí in modern Bolivia and from Mexico, was shipped by Spain to China as well as to Europe. Silver was less prevalent in China than in Europe and consequently more valuable. The continuous flow of silver from the new world caused a continuous flow of wealth from China to Spain. Similarly, the relative value of silver and gold was fixed by traditional law in the Ottoman Empire. The fixed exchange rate resulted in wealth being drawn out of the Ottoman Empire as the value of silver could not be adjusted downwards. The silver imports also caused general price inflation throughout Europe.

Demographic decline

For those who extend the General Crisis outside Europe, one symptom is dramatic population decline. For example, with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty the population of China fell by approximately 50 million between 1600 and 1644, a decrease of over 30%. Likewise, Germany's population was reduced by approximately 15% to 30% in the Thirty Years War.^[3] The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also lost about a third of its population.

Climate change

The General Crisis overlaps fairly neatly with the so-called Little Ice Age which some authorities locate in the 17th century. Of particular interest is the overlap with the Maunder Minimum. A global phenomenon of this sort would go a long way towards explaining the seemingly universal state of warfare and decline in the mid 17th century.

Footnotes

1. ^ Aston, T (editor): Crisis in Europe, 1560-1660. Routledge, London 1965, p 67.
2. ^ Robinson, Kristen "Trevor-Roper, Hugh" from The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing pages 1204-1205.
3. ^ "The Thirty Years War (1618-48)". Twentieth Century Atlas. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm#30YrW. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 

References

• "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" by Hugh Trevor-Roper in Past and Present, Vol. 16 (1959)
• Crisis in Europe, 1560-1660, edited by Trevor Aston (1965)
• Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe by Ted Rabb (1975)
• The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century by Geoffrey Parker (1978)
• Early Modern Europe: From Crisis to Stability, edited by Philip Benedict and Myron P. Gutmann (2005)